Angelou

Famous quotes containing the word angelou:

    During those years in Stamps, I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare. He was my first white love.... it was Shakespeare who said, “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes.” It was a state of mind with which I found myself most familiar. I pacified myself about his whiteness by saying that after all he had been dead so long it couldn’t matter to anyone any more.
    —Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

    There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in black women. It’s as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.
    —Maya Angelou (b. 1928)

    Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the state of victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, “they” don’t want me, “they” accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, “they” don’t deserve me.
    —Maya Angelou (b. 1928)